The explosive developments in medical treatment relating to drugs have created a costly and high risk drug management environment. A 1995 study published in the “Archives of Internal Medicine” estimates that $76 billion is spent each year in the U.S. on extra doctor visits and hospitalization because people do not take their medication properly. In addition, a 1999 study by the National Academy of Science, Institute of Medicine, describes errors made in the hospitals which threaten patient's health. The study estimated that 98,000 patients die each year because of medical mistakes. Prescription drug errors are one of the major areas where mistakes are made.
Unit-dose blister type packaging for prescription drugs is one of the fastest growing package formats and is projected to be at 40% penetration in the U.S. market by 2003. Blister packages are already the dominant prescription drug package format in Europe with 85% penetration. Some of the reasons behind this growing use of blister packaging are: (i) product integrity being maintained throughout out the drug life cycle, (ii) better product protection to insure quality and efficacy of the drug, (iii) better tamper evidencing and child resistance, and (iv) improved patient compliance in that unit-dose blister packaging gives patents a clearly marked individual dosage.
The ability to obtain data regarding the usage of medications through a blister pack containing devices for monitoring the accessing of individual containments within the packaging is described in several references, including Applicant's U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/611,582. These references teach monitoring the accessing of individual containments to determine whether and when a medication was taken, in order to accumulate information regarding the medication intake.
The taking of medications has become a central aspect of life. Individuals may take over the counter or prescription medications for a wide range of ailments. The effectiveness of the medications may be dependent on a patient's punctuality of application or ingestion (hereinafter referred to generically as “medication intake”) of the medication at issue.
The punctuality with which a patient takes medication may affect every entity in the health care chain. The patient taking the medication on time increases the likelihood that the medication will be effective, thus reducing disadvantages associated with the medical condition for which the medication is being taken. These disadvantages may include work time lost due to the condition as well as patient discomfort associated with the condition. The improved effectiveness associated with timely medication also benefits physicians, by reducing the likelihood that the medication will be unsuccessful in resolving the condition, thus reducing the likelihood that additional visits are required to resolve the condition. Increased effectiveness associated with timely medication may also reduce the total amount of medication needed to be taken by a patient, thus reducing the cost of resolving the medical condition, such that expenses to health care insurers are reduced.
In order to assess the compliance of a patient taking medication according to an intake schedule, instrumented medication packages have been developed. These packages incorporate a method of identifying the dispensation of medication from the package. The inclusion of a clock allows the information to be correlated to time. Early efforts used some form of memory associated with the package to store dispensation time information for later downloading, such as when the package was returned to a pharmacy or other download-capable site. The necessity of returning the package to a specific location had several drawbacks, including the lack of incentive for a patient to return the package unless another prescription was to be picked up. Additionally, the dispensation information would not be available to anyone in the chain of entities involved in the treatment of the patient (the chain may include, but is not limited to, a doctor, pharmacist, insurer, medication manufacturer, the patient him or herself, other caregivers, or anyone else involved in the treatment of the patient) until after the package had been returned, and any data downloaded.
Applicant's earlier patent application disclosed the use of a network of receivers for receiving information from instrumented medication packages. One embodiment included the use of receivers located in hospital rooms to allow in-hospital monitoring of medication intake. Another embodiment utilized receivers located at diverse locations, including pharmacies and patient residences, to provide broader coverage for acquiring information from instrumented medication packages. Additional embodiments included capabilities for monitoring additional conditions associated with the taking of medication, including the conditions of storage of the instrumented medication package itself.